He had an excellent reputation as a physician and obstetrician and as a scholar because he was editor of the first Roman edition of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Three years later (August 1797), he was arrested again for plotting to murder the Pope then released again as the result of French help following the treaty of Tolentino.

From September 1797 to March 1798, after a brief stop in Milan where he saw Ugo Foscolo, he met Napoleon Bonaparte first in Rastadt, then in Paris to advocate for the Rome release.

As soon as he came to power, he was far from meeting the patriotic and democratic expectations of his fellows, concerned primarily with his family economical position while avoiding French occupants offence.

In 1809, when the French army occupied Rome, he went back home but he was kept out into the margins of public life by the Imperial administration.